Don't You Remember?
by Straightjacket Serenade
Summary: A short story based on what happened to Zoey after the nuke blew up. Wait... what nuke?


The last thing you remember is cutting the wires, then calling for Rythian.

No, that's not true- the last thing you remember is a huge flash of white, searing pain, and a piercing ringing in your ears as nearly everything you love is ripped to pieces by a machine you thought you could take care of, but we'll focus on the former thought for now. You'd finally convinced Rythian you could handle the bomb, and gotten him out of the castle. You went down into the room with the nuke and managed to find the bundle of wires. One needed to be cut, and you were 99% sure it was the red one.

Alright, 98%.

Okay, maybe it was more like 97% sure. That's not important. What is important is that because your amazing skills of remembrance had been wrong that one time, instead of having a fantastic party for your amazing technomage knowledge, the nuke went off.

Cue blinding flash, searing pain, we already went over this. Which is why you found it odd that you were falling through total blackness.  
Wait, no, not blackness. You manage to open your eyes against the wind and find you're actually falling through the sky, watching the ground rise up to meet you.

Quite fast, actually.

Just as it occurs to you to scream, flail, do _something_, you hit water. A brief moment of disorientation and some frantic paddling later, and you're bobbing on the surface of a small pond.

Sound rushes to meet you, and you hear someone calling your name.

"Zoey! Zoey, are you alright?" Rythian! Oh, thank goodness Rythian is okay! You were worried he'd stuck around the castle while you were working to make sure nothing went wrong.

"Rythian, I-" you start, then choke as your head dips below the water.

"Zoey, let me help you," He says as he drags you by the arms onto the grass. You cough and splutter, all thoughts of the nuke momentarily forgotten while you try to remember how to breathe. The impact when you hit the pond had knocked the wind out of you, and you realize just how _sore_ you really are. You want to curl up and take a nap, but that's obviously not going to happen any time soon.

"Rythian, I was so worried. Are you alright? I'm so sorry I blew the nuke up, but look, I'm alright, see? And we can build a new base, one even better than Blackrock ever was, and-"

"Zoey, what are you talking about?" He asked, a concerned smile on his face. "The nuclear reactor's explosion wasn't your fault. And what's a blackrock?"

_What_? Why didn't Rythian remember any of it? You can see it all so clearly, you were cutting the blue wire . . .

. . . Or was it the green wire?

Come to think of it, why were you messing with wires in the first place? You don't know how to handle machinery or computers; that's all Lalna's department, and you're never going to go to _him_ for help. You hate Lalna because of the nuke that blew up your base. . .

. . . No, not base, home. The nuke destroyed your house and all the mushrooms. And it wasn't a nuke, it was Sjin's nuclear reactor. It was all Sjin's fault.

"Zoey, are you sure you're okay?" Rythian asked, waving a hand in front of your face to snap you out of your delusions.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Rythian. I must've just been dreaming or something. It's alright now. What just happened?" You ask after a moment's pause.

"Well the thing is, Lalna and Sjin blew up the world and I don't intend to let them get away with it. So are you in?" He raises an eyebrow, and you think you see a smile form under his mask.

"I'm in. Yeah," You say. As Rythian turned away, the tired feeling sweeps over you again, this time accompanied by a gnawing hunger. "Will there be food?"

"There'll be plenty of food,"

"Okay, I'm in," You decide, and follow Rythian up one of the many hills surrounding you. As you walk away, you feel something in your pocket. Reaching in, you extract a small, speckled red mushroom. Seeing it causes something to come over you. A series of scenes flash through your head; an underground cave filled with mushrooms, a prison, a coronation, a huge lab, a bomb, a mess of wires, a huge white expl-

"_Agh_!" You gasp, clutching at your head. You weren't sure what had just happened, but your head hurt like crazy. One second you were thinking about . . .

. . . What were you thinking about? Oh well, it probably wasn't important anyways. The pain wa salready starting to fade.

Rythian spun around just in time to watch you straighten again. "Are you absolutely _sure_ you're alright?" He asks once more. Boy, could he be persistent.

"I'm fine, Rythian. Really, it's nothing to worry about,"

"Fair enough," he shrugs, then resumes walking.

You take one last look at the mushroom in your hand. _Barry_, you decide. _This mushroom definitely looks like a Barry._


End file.
